The Kanbar Forum

The Kanbar Forum, our 3,600-square-foot venue, is a multidisciplinary theater space fitted with a Constellation acoustic system, one of the most advanced in the world, from Meyer Sound Laboratories, Inc. With this equipment, we can change the Forum’s acoustic properties with the press of a button, from a nonreverberant recording studio to an immersive concert hall. There are only a few places in the Bay Area with this setup; one of the others is TRI Studios in Marin, an experimental “playpen” for musicians like owner Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead.

The Forum can be configured in lots of ways, from a traditional theater seating setup to a caberet-style grouping of tables and chairs. It will be used for film screenings, After Dark events, live music, lectures, training sessions, and a variety of special events, including an upcoming series called Resonance, which explores the technology, culture, and perception of sound.

Accessibility Please note that a wheelchair lift and assistive listening systems are both available in the Forum.

For more than 40 years, the Kronos Quartet—David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Sunny Yang (cello)—has pursued a singular artistic vision, combining a spirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to continually re-imagining the string quartet experience.

We tend to think of “home” as the building in which we live, or the town or city where we reside. Voyage to the edge of the known universe, and gain some perspective on the tiny planet we call home. See some of the amazing ways the universe is structured, and learn how it’s evolved.

To celebrate the artistry inherent to industry, this Saturday Cinema features two visionary shorts that reimagine factories as sites of elaborate choreographies that just happen to result in useful, omnipresent technology.

We tend to think of “home” as the building in which we live, or the town or city where we reside. Voyage to the edge of the known universe, and gain some perspective on the tiny planet we call home. See some of the amazing ways the universe is structured, and learn how it’s evolved.

Saturday Cinema is a core weekly program that captures the ideas which animate the Exploratorium. We highlight works that blend observation, poetry, and surrealism, and celebrate films that utilize unique, handcrafted processes.